A brand new thriller with a supernatural twist from New York Times bestselling author Lilith Saintcrow.

Anna Caldwell has spent the last few days in a blur. She’s seen her brother’s dead body, witnessed the shooting of innocent civilians, and been shot at herself. Now she has nowhere to turn—and only one person she can possibly call.

Since Anna dumped him, it seems waiting is all Josiah Wolfe has done. Now, she’s calling, and she needs his help—or rather, the “talents” she once ran away from. As a liquidation agent, Josiah knows everything about getting out of tough situations. He’ll get whatever she’s carrying to the proper authorities, then settle down to making sure she doesn’t leave him again.

But the story Anna’s stumbled into is far bigger than even Josiah suspects. Anna wants to survive, Josiah wants Anna back, and the powerful people chasing her want the only thing worth killing for—immortality. An ancient evil has been trapped, a woman is in danger, and the world is going to see just how far a liquidation agent will go…

Quick & Dirty: Slow paced action and unlikeable characters bring down this book that actually has a good premise.

Three years ago, Anna broke up with her boyfriend, Josiah, upon discovering that he made his living as a “liquidation agent” (aka assassin). Fast forward to the present, and Anna has had the worst four days of her life. Anna’s brother Eric is dead, murdered, and when Anna goes to his editor, George, to discuss why, she’s present to see him also murdered, along with his family. Now, Anna is on the run, in possession of information the murderers will kill to retrieve. There’s only one person she knows can help her: Josiah. As they probe further into the details of the case, Josiah and Anna uncover information that stretches the boundaries between reality and what they always thought was fantasy. Will they be able to make it out of this situation alive, or will their reunion be cut short?

Wow. What can I say about this book? Honestly, the only thing that kept me from giving it the lowest rating was that I felt it could have been an interesting read if it hadn’t been for all of the flaws of the book. Despite the promising premise, it was a majorly disappointing book, and I struggled to get through it. To be perfectly honest, if I didn’t have to review it, I don’t think I would have finished it, even though I very rarely put a book down once I start it.

First off, there’s nothing really likeable about the characters, especially Josiah. The reader is constantly told how much he loves Anna, but we never really see him acting lovingly towards her. Instead, he’s constantly ordering her around, talking down to her, and even yelling at her. He, in fact, does something completely despicable to Anna at around the 10 percent mark of the book, which made me totally want nothing to do with him for the majority of the book. It doesn’t matter that he says later in the chapter that he feels bad for what he did. The fact remains that he did it, and I think actions speak louder than words in this case.

As for Anna, she’s really just boring as a character. I don’t need all of my heroines to be the strong, kickass Kate Daniels type, but I would like them to show at least a little backbone. While I understand that Anna isn’t used to running for her life, it would have been nice to see her try to defend herself instead of constantly expecting others to do it for her. She also comes across as a bit of a pushover. It was just very hard to connect to her.

As for the book as a whole, it just felt like a mess. Often, chapters would start after some big fight had taken place, and I would feel completely lost because I didn’t actually get to “see” the fight. Not being present for a lot of the story’s action made it actually feel like not much was going on, and I just ended up bored.

All in all, this book was a major disappointment. The premise sounded interesting, but the lackluster characters and slow pace really made the book suffer. I haven’t read much else from this author, and I have to say, this book made me not really want to pick up anything else of hers either.

Notable Scene:

“I want to hire you.”

Then, the crowning absurdity. “I have money. Left over from Mom’s inheritance.”

He almost drove off the road. Recovered, hit the freeway on-ramp, and accelerated. “Anna…” He stopped right there. “I want to hire you”? After slapping me, swearing at me, and walking out on me? Three fucking years, and now you want to “hire” me? Jesus Christ in a fucking sidecar. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I want you to kill someone for me.”

It was a damn good thing he didn’t steer off the road again. Wonderful. She’s lost her goddamn mind. And so have I.